OPINION: The bush is reconnecting with the corporate sector after a long period of neglect.
I have recently returned from Melbourne, where I attended a conference in a heritage building constructed in 1913 as the headquarters of the Commercial Travellers Association of Victoria.
Near the Flinders Street station and Yarra River, the building provided accommodation to salespeople of the time. Most were based in regional Victorian towns and visited Melbourne, which in the 1880s was the world’s wealthiest city per capita, in order to ply their import-export trade.
A lot of their business was Victoria’s rural output, such as wool, which earned significant income and enabled them to purchase capital equipment and household goods, much of that sourced from overseas when tariffs allowed.
This trade was so important the building was one the first in the city to have telephones installed in every room.
It highlighted to me the huge changes that have taken place in just over a century. Back then, cities were the marketplaces for commerce that largely started and finished in the regions. The relationship between urban and rural inhabitants was strong.
For many years it was a similar story in Western Australia. Even when I was young, in the 1970s, there remained a close connection between the city and country.
Perth born and bred, I spent many weekends and holidays on farms in the Wheatbelt from Morawa to Katanning.
That was probably one third the way into a 60-year decline in both population of farming areas and their economic importance to Australia.
As we know, the global, competitive nature of the food sector has driven massive changes in rural Australia during that time.
Inefficient small farms have given way to bigger aggregations of land operated by fewer people using better equipment.
With few exceptions, the result has been a shrinking in the both the size and the number of communities in rural areas. That has been exacerbated where geography and climate offer few other attractions to retain the population.
While many bemoan this change, people voted with their feet.
Long-term policies requiring those in teaching or medicine to spend early parts of the careers in the country were abandoned because they were unpopular with younger generations who had other choices in life.
Meanwhile, a higher proportion of rural dwellers sent their kids to the city for education. Many never returned.
And why would they, when bigger farms with fewer workers meant less opportunity for the next generation?
As farmland ownership has consolidated into the hands of fewer, bigger holdings, many of those who own or operate rural enterprises are now based in the city, further reducing the countryside’s economic power.
But it is not all bad.
Last month in Perth there was a display of rural might in the heart of the city.
As part of a promotion for a major annual event – the Dowerin Machinery Field Days – the latest in harvesting technology was put to work on the green mile of Langley Park, right on corporate WA’s doorstep.
As a rural community, Dowerin has tried hard to remain relevant amid all this change. Established 60 years ago, the field days have helped by channelling money into the town and its amenities.
In recent years, the field days management has increasingly sought to bridge the distance between the bush and city-based businesses and corporate players.
And that is not just because the consolidation of farm ownership has led to a very wealthy elite among the state’s top growers: people who can afford the latest technology, Cottesloe houses, Eagle Bay holiday homes and investments in alternative sectors.
Agribusiness has emerged as a sizeable corporate sector.
WA is home to several major food brands whose home base is essentially Perth, even though the real work takes place on farms and processing facilities in the regions.
Think about Craig Mostyn Group, Milne Agrigroup, Galati Group, Brownes, and Bannister Downs.
There are sizeable manufacturing firms, too, which have reversed the logic of the countryside’s labour drain to capture and retain a workforce with rural lifestyle opportunities.
Bruce Rock Engineering is an example.
The biggest of all is CBH Group. Owned by an ever-diminishing band of WA farmers, the nation’s biggest cooperative handles most of the state’s huge grain crop.
